Brooks Family Papers, 1780-1846
Held by The Filson Historical Society
Creator: Brooks family
Title: Papers, 1780-1846
Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.
Size of Collection: 0.23 cubic feet
Location Number: Mss. A B873a
Scope and Content Note
The collection consists of correspondence, land records, slave bills of sale, and receipts of the Brooks family of Jefferson County and Bullitt County, Kentucky. The bulk of the collection relates to Joseph Brooks and Nancy Boise Brooks and their son Joseph A. Brooks as they managed their vast land holdings and purchased enslaved people to work at the family’s large saltworks. The slave bills of sale may be useful for genealogical research, as they list the first names of enslaved people who were sold.
Folders 1-2 contain miscellaneous letters from various correspondents and land records. Correspondents include Worden Pope and Abraham Field. Some of the letters, land deeds, and notes reference Bullitt’s Lick, Mann’s Lick, buffalo roads, and enslaved people being sold in Mississippi and Louisiana.
Folders 3-4 contain twenty-eight slave bills of sale from 1812-1828. The bills of sale list Joseph Brooks or Joseph A. Brooks as the buyer, the first names and approximate ages of the child or adult being sold, the amount they are being sold for, and the names of the individuals selling the enslaved person. Also included in folder 4 are two certificates, one dated 1 March 1820 stating that Jim Hundley, a man enslaved by Nancy Brooks, “has not been convicted of murder, burglary, arson or other felony within the said state.” The other certificate provided language to attest that an enslaved person was a “good field hand,” had not been convicted of a crime, and had “good moral character,” with blank spaces for names, dates, and county.
Click here to access a list of names and ages of enslaved persons, along with additional information, documented in the slave bills of sale and other records. The information is also listed at the end of this finding aid.
Folder 5 holds miscellaneous receipts and notes relating to the sale of salt, the sale of enslaved persons in Mississippi and Louisiana, and various expenses.
Related collections:
Shelby, Isaac, 1750-1826. Deed [to Joseph Brooks]. 21 March 1787. A.D.S. 3P [Mss. C S].
Brooks, Joseph Anderson, 1794-1846. Papers, 1779-1869 [Mss. A B873b].
Conditions of Access and Use
The Bullitt County Historical Society scanned the collection for the donor. These scans are held by the Bullitt County Historical Society and the Filson Historical Society. Due to the fragile condition of the documents, the Filson recommends that researchers use the digital scans. To view PDFs of the scans, click the links in the folder list below.
Biographical Note
Joseph Brooks was born in Chester, Pennsylvania. After his marriage to Nancy Boice, he moved to Kentucky County, Virginia, arriving in the spring of 1780 at the Falls of the Ohio. He settled at Spring Station, a fortified group of cabins on Beargrass Creek (near present-day Seneca Park in eastern Louisville) until February 1781, when he moved to Bullitt’s Lick. He remained at the saltworks until 1784, when he bought land and built a cabin at a site alternately referred to as Phillips’ Spring and Stewart’s Spring, located on the path of the Wilderness Road between the Falls and Bullitt’s Lick. On April 9, 1785, a license was granted to Brooks to keep a tavern at his house, later called Brooks’ Spring. The site of Brooks’ Spring and the former Old Brooks Burial Ground are located today just east of the I-65 expressway near the corner of Brooks Hill Road and Blue Lick Road in Brooks, Kentucky; the town takes its name from his family.
Around 1787-1788, Joseph Brooks founded the saltworks at Mann’s Lick (near present day Fairdale) and acquired a significant amount of land in Bullitt and Jefferson counties. An 1808 Bullitt County tax list notes Joseph Brooks as having the largest land holdings in the county with 13,941 acres. The saltworks at Bullitt’s Lick and Mann’s Lick were some of the only significant sources of salt west of the Alleghenies. Salt production was a large-scale operation with hundreds of workers, including enslaved individuals.
Joseph Anderson Brooks was born on 17 August 1794, when his father, Joseph Brooks, was 39 and his mother, Nancy Boice Brooks, was 46. Joseph and Nancy’s other children included Margaret (married Solomon Neill), Nancy (married Elisha Standiford), and Squire. Many of the descendants of Joseph Brooks have been buried in Hebron Cemetery.
Joseph A. Brooks’s first wife was Cordelia Standiford; they married on 22 January 1811, in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Joseph’s second wife was Rebecca Miles (1793-1854). He died on 27 October 1846, in Bullitt, Kentucky, at the age of 52, and was buried in Brooks, Kentucky.
One of the individuals enslaved by the Brooks family was Darby Granderson, who is listed as “Darby” in an 1817 bill of sale in the collection. This document was referenced in a 2024 Washington Post article about Charles Holman’s research to identify his ancestors. Another enslaved individual referenced in an 1820 certificate in the collection, Jim Hundley, is also mentioned in the 1818 will of Joseph Brooks as “Jim Hunley,” according to a transcription of the will cited in the sources listed below.
Abraham Field, a friend of Joseph A. Brooks, is also represented in the collection. He married Elizabeth Simmons in Bullitt County in 1822. Their daughter Elizabeth Ellen Field married Solomon Neill Brooks, Joseph’s son, in 1843.
Sources:
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brooks-25808
https://bullittcountyhistory.org/bchistory/joseph-brooks-will.html
Tara Bahrampur, “A Stunning Find in His Family Tree: The Bushes’ Ancestors Enslaved His Relatives,” Washington Post, 13 July 2024.
Robert E. McDowell, “Bullitt’s Lick: The Related Saltworks and Settlements,” The Filson Club History Quarterly (July 1956), pp. 253-254.
Folder List
Box 1
Folder 1: Correspondence, 1816-1846 and undated (click to access PDF)
Folder 2: Land deeds and notes, 1780-1783 and undated (click to access PDF)
Folder 3: Slave bills of sale, 1812-1817 (click to access PDF)
Folder 4: Slave bills of sale and certificates, 1818-1828 and undated (click to access PDF)
Folder 5: Miscellaneous receipts and notes, 1820-1830 and undated (click to access PDF)
Subject Headings
Brooks, Joseph, 1755-1818.
Brooks, Joseph Anderson, 1794-1846.
Brooks, Nancy Boice, 1748-1839.
Enslaved persons – Kentucky.
Enslaved children – Kentucky.
Land use – Kentucky.
Salt licks – Kentucky.
Slave bills of sale.
Slave records.
Slavery.
Information from slave bills of sale (folders 3-4)
| Folder 3: Slave bills of sale, 1812-1817 | ||||
| Date | Description with name and age of enslaved person | Seller | Buyer | Amount |
| 1812 Dec. 26 | “one negro boy named Harry ten years of age” | Dennis Brashear of Bullitt County | Joseph Brooks | $200 |
| 1812 Dec. 26 | “one negro girl named Haney[?] . . . about seven years old” | Dennis Brashear of Bullitt County | Joseph A. Brooks of Jefferson County | $231 |
| 1813 April 3 | “A negro man named Jim commonly called Jim Slack . . . aged about twenty nine” | Joseph Brooks of Bullitt County | Joseph A. Brooks of Jefferson County | $400 |
| 1813 April 3 | “a negro woman named Silvey aged about eighteen years” | Joseph Brooks of Bullitt County | Joseph A. Brooks of Jefferson County | $330 |
| 1814 June 27 | “a negro man slave the name of Henry” | Squire Brooks | Joseph A. Brooks | $420 |
| 1814 Sept 16 | “a negro man named Bill. . . Age twenty three years” | James Caldwell of Bullitt County | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $500 |
| 1815 March 17 | “one negro woman named Matty . . . aged eighteen years” | John Gray of Bullitt County | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $350 |
| 1815 June 21 | “a negro man named Nelson . . . aged about thirty years old” | Charles M. Thruston | Joseph Brooks | $400 |
| 1816 April 18 | “a negro boy slave named Alphred about the age of seven years” | Smallwood Jewel[?] | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $337 |
| 1816 April | “a negro man named [? – page is torn] . . . twenty five years” | John Lancaster | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | |
| 1816 Aug. 10 | “a negro slave girl named Katy about fifteen years of age” | William Shetton | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $300 |
| 1815 Sept. 31 | “two Negro men named Nase and Harry. Nase aged twenty six Harry twenty” | Samuel Finley[?] | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $2,000 |
| 1816 Dec. 26 | “a negro man slave named Sam aged about twenty four years” | Henry Miles | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $562 |
| 1817 March 1 | “a negro man slave named Aurmond aged twenty four years” | Samuel Thornberry | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $550 |
| 1817 Oct. 6 | “a negro man named Bobb about twenty seven years of age and a negro girl Dina[?] about eighteen years of age” | Thomas Whitledge | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $900 |
| 1817 Oct. 10 | “two negro men slaves, the one named Bob and the other named Darby said bob is about twenty five years of age and Darby about twenty two years of age” | Joseph Thomas | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $1,300 |
| Folder 4: Slave bills of sale and certificates, 1818-1828 and undated | ||||
| Date | Description with name and age of enslaved person | Seller | Buyer | Amount |
| 1818 Oct 8 | “a negro man slave named Adam about the age of twenty four” | Jones | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $800 |
| 1819 July 6 | “Lewis, aged about four and twenty a man, Clowey a woman about twenty two, and her child Alford, about two years of age” | James Caldwell of Bullitt County | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $1,800 |
| 1820 Dec. 18 | “a negro Boy named Bill about eleven or twelve years of age” | Nathan Halbert | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $400 |
| 1820 Dec. 22 | “two negro boys to wit Alfred about eight years of age and Preskit[?] aged about six years both slaves” | Matthew Halbert | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $500 |
| 1821 Aug 9 | “a negro boy slave named Nelson aged about ten years” | Jesse Rawson | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $375 |
| 1822 Oct 19 | “a negro man named Ignatius between thirty to thirty five years” | William McAhron | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $825 |
| 1823 Jan. 3 | “a negro man named Markus[?] about the age of thirty years” | Charles M. Thruston | Joseph A. Brooks | $500 |
| 1823 March 19 | “a negro boy named Charles, about seventeen years of age” | Nathaniel Wickliffe of Nelson County | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $500 |
| 1823 April 18 | “a negro man named Jacob about twenty three years old” | Ben Chapere[?] | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $450 |
| 1824 Nov 13 | “a negro man slave named Isaac about the age of thirty five years” | William Humboldt[?] | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $625 |
| 1826 Sept. 11 | “a negro man slave named Edmund (and known by the name of Edmund Hanson being the same Negro that I bought from Benj Hanson) about the age of twenty three years” | Joseph Swearingen | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $465 |
| 1828 Dec. 17 | “a negro Woman and two Children to wit Milley the woman about thirty one years of age Joseph about four years old and Harrison about two years old” | John Graham | Joseph A. Brooks of Bullitt County | $550 |
| 1820 March 14 | “a negro man slave the property of Nancy Brooks of said county [Jefferson] called and known by the name ‘Jim Hundley’ about forty years of age, black complexion, . . . about five feet six or seven inches high reputed to be the Husband of Caroline the slave of said Nancy Brooks” | Not a bill of sale | ||